Heir to IBM's OA throne - OfficeVision office automation software - Software Review - Pick of the Month - evaluation

Software Magazine, June, 1991 by Howard Millman

IBM's OfficeVision, which is destined for the annals of sofware history for being among the most delayed of all products, is actually an integrated application suitable for general use in any size office or workgroup.

The heir apparent to IBM's Professional Office System (Profs), OfficeVission 1.1 offers a mix of features, including E-mail (all data formats plus Ascii), multiple address books (personal and business), a WYSIGWYG text editor (including search/replace, spell check and thesaurus functions), a filer module (for managing E-mail and internally generated correspondence), plus a simple phone dialer. OfficeVision is available in MVS, VM, OS/400 as well of OS/2 LAN versions. IBM's March 1991 upgrade (Release 1.1 ) of the OS/2 LAN version modestly improves upon the functionality of its predecessor.

One of those improvements now allows launching DOS (in addition to OS/2 applications) directly from desktop icons. As before, OS/2 will supervise multiple applications running a 386, 486, or PS/2 Model 80 of above. However, only one DOS application will run at a time.

Users can run any DOS program including Windows 3.0 and Windows' applications. Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) will transfer data between Window applications and OS/2 applications. The number of programs that can be launched under Windows depends on system RAM size and (to some degree) speed of the hard disk.

According to IBM, the recommended OfficeVision RAM and hard disk storage requirements for version 1.1 are: for requestor machines, 3Mb RAM over the operating system (or 7Mb total) and 3Mb of hard disk; for server machines, 3Mb over the operating system (or 10Mb total) and 6Mb on the hard disk.

The server for OfficeVision 1.1 need not be dedicated. Although workstations (requestors) for Release 1.1 may be diskless, Release 2 will likely incorporate cooperative processing. Accordingly, 286 or 386 disk-based workstations will prove a wiser investment.

A second improvement offered by 1.1 leverages the time-saving advantages of object manupulation (popularized by Microsoft in Object Linking & Embedding (OLE) and by Hewlett-Packard in NewWave). Object manipulation links a file with the (OS/2) application that created it. For example, when you access a 1-2-3 spreadsheet from E-mail, Lotus 1-2-3 automatically executes.

Setting up OfficeVision, which consists of six high-density disks, is simplified by its ability to replicate the desktop and distribute its systemwide. The desktop can be customized afterward to meet individual preferences.

OfficeVision LAN 1.1 runs on OS/2 1.2 and 1.3 EE with Presentation Manager. Because PM is based on IBM's Common User Interface, OfficeVision's screens are familiar to anyone who has worked with OS/2 or Windows 3.0.

For established OS/2 LANS (either Token-Ring, Ethernet or PC LAN-based networks), the system administrator can load and configure OfficeVision in about one hour. If help is required, IBM technical support still provides the old-fashioned kind: free.

For OS/2 systems, OfficeVision costs $750 per user. Purchasers of 1.1 will receive a free upgrade to Release 2 when it is available. The less costly character-based DOS requestor version ($210) does not include the GUI interface, nor can it launch linked object applications.

On midrange and larger systems OfficeVision's cost escalates quickly. For example, pricing for VM systems begins at $8,500 and rises to a maximum of $51,000, depending on the number of workstations. Admittedly, the software can be costly. However, as the core of an SAA/CUA-compliant system, OfficeVision provides a solid foundation for future expansion.

Howard Millman, a computer consultant and analyst, contributes to several national computer magazines. He lives and works in Croton, New York.